[SA Chris]

Not in the same vein, but we were doing Cioch Direct on Skye, coming to the end if the third to last pitch it started to rain, I racked up and proceeded to lead the last two pitches together, some of which was in a sheltered corner, until I an out of rope about 10m from the top and hastily set up a half hanging belay on a slab, and brought her up. By now the entire slab was running with water, a complete west coast downpour. She got to the belay, and we had the choice of swapping at the belay and feeding ropes through, so she cursed loudly, grabbed a few bits of gear off me, climbed up, placed one cam in the only placement we could see getting soaked up sleeves etc in the process, and basically swam the rest of the way up this crappy crack, violently cursing the rock, the weather and me as she went.

Possibly one for the epics thread...

[tomtom]

I immediately asked her to marry me and she said no.

:D

Did this turn into a siege?

[shark]

I immediately asked her to marry me and she said no.

:D

Did this turn into a siege?

Yep. Used all my sales training and played the numbers game. Figured she only had to say yes once.

[cheque]

Not in the same vein, but we were doing Cioch Direct on Skye, coming to the end if the third to last pitch it started to rain, I racked up and proceeded to lead the last two pitches together, some of which was in a sheltered corner, until I an out of rope about 10m from the top and hastily set up a half hanging belay on a slab, and brought her up. By now the entire slab was running with water, a complete west coast downpour. She got to the belay, and we had the choice of swapping at the belay and feeding ropes through, so she cursed loudly, grabbed a few bits of gear off me, climbed up, placed one cam in the only placement we could see getting soaked up sleeves etc in the process, and basically swam the rest of the way up this crappy crack, violently cursing the rock, the weather and me as she went.

Possibly one for the epics thread...

Is this still Mrs Shark?

[SA Chris]

No, my wife, not Sharks. Well as far as I know anyway, mine does disappear for days on end...

(sorry made that bit unclear, deleted the preamble)

[Baron]

Yes Gav, one more for Nick flashing Nemesis - he always had the coolest looking Egyptians

Matt Birch climbing anything

DT topping out Sardine - solo

[tomtom]

I immediately asked her to marry me and she said no.

:D

Did this turn into a siege?

Yep. Used all my sales training and played the numbers game. Figured she only had to say yes once.

Like timeshare sales?

Whisk the client off to a nice location, treat Em to a nice slap up lunch - lots of free booze etc... then don’t let them go until they’ve signed on the line?

😁

[andy popp]

DT topping out Sardine - solo

Paul Pritchard and I watched Dave solo Lord. We were walking along the flat bed of the valley toward Scimitar Ridge when we noticed him on it and stopped to watch for a few minutes; but it was all a long way away and everything looked fine so we wandered on.

[AndyR]

Matt Birch climbing anything

This has been the best thread on this board for some time, but has also caused me to reflect that in over 35 yrs of climbing, I've seen relatively few jaw dropping moments in person - but I climbed quite a bit with Matt in 89/90 and I still haven't seen anyone as strong - him doing the press at Rubicon and low variants as his warm ups, totally static, still makes me shake my head (as well as his problems at the Armitage Centre board).

[Fultonius]

I remember an early trip to Font, heading round trying everything, failing on most stuff from 5b to 6c, but getting the odd 7a...

Anyway, this old guy, tanned like a chestnut, in tiny little shorts, you know, the running ones with big slits up the sides. We'll, he wandered over to some impossible looking thing, stopped a tiny beer mat, pulled on, put a foot high and, shit, I've never need muscles like it, it was like his quad was ripped in half! With exacting precision, power but poise he just cruised up it. Think it was in the 7s, and he must have been 60+. It was really mind blowing at the time.

I'm struggling to remember any real wads. Well, honnold did the complete scream but meh, it wasn't actually that interesting.

I belayed Iain Small on an E7 near ossian's cave. It was a cold day, and I'd had a bit of an epic on The Clearances (one totem away from a big smash when I got terminally pumped and frozen hands). Watching him it looked great, possibly E3/E4 I thought watching Iain on it.... Ha! Spent a lot of time hanging on the rope that day...

[Andy F]

One just came to mind. Holding the ropes for Mark Millar as he onsighted Menstrual Gossip (E6 6b, Dervish Slab) in 90/91. He made it look simple. I struggled to second, falling many times and the lack of gear, plus the fact almost nothing would hold anything more than body weight showed how cool a lead it was. A sub-zero level of focus.

[turnipturned]

Matt Birch climbing anything

I climbed with Matt a few times on his board. Impressive, he has a unique style.

Speaking of Yorkshire Legends, TC posted a video of Zoo York the other day which was pretty cool.

[Johnny Brown]

Watching Jvan flash Zoo York is up there too actually. By today's standards it was pretty much onsight. 2002 I think, way ahead.

[andy_e]

Oh yeah, that reminds me of the time when 8c Jee did Zoo York in about 6 goes, barely looked like he was even trying!

[Johnny Brown]

Sound like there were five goes where he fell off though? Perhaps he should have tried.

Other Jvan waddage - flashing Brad Pit in 2002 - first time it had been flashed, just looked so solid. Even more impressive, came back about twelve years later, early summer, t-shirt weather, wife and kids in tow, did it again.

[Orrincoley]

A lot to choose from but a personal favourite is watching Buster Martin do Riverbed 8B in Magic Wood.

He'd had a couple sessions trying it I think, eventually had it sussed and was on send burns. Was getting super close but basically made a tiny mistake or something most goes right where it counted. In the end he fell off on or just after the final "hard" bit and just looked a bit confused at it. He almost immediately walked back over to the start, barely as much as chalked up again. Pulled on and just waltzed the whole thing totally effortlessly. When he came back down he just declared it was all in his head all along as to why he was falling.
Was totally blown away by the whole thing. It isn't the hardest 8B in the world but its by no means easy, plus it's quite long so to almost climb the whole thing twice in a row was quite mind boggling to see.

Another favourite is some random dude in RMNP in 2015 saying all us youths need energy drinks and what not to get up hard stuff but he isn't like that, so he cracked open a can of beer, downed it and sent Don't Get Too Gready 8B

[Bradders]

Oh yeah, that reminds me of the time when 8c Jee did Zoo York in about 6 goes, barely looked like he was even trying!

This reminds me of a session at Caley a couple of years ago, Dave Barrans comes up and does Secret Seventh, Ben's Sit, JuJu Club and Zoo York, each one first go and completely casual. What made it really impressive though was that he did them above one pad! I just couldn't comprehend how confident you'd have to be to do that, especially on Zoo where pinging off backwards is such a regular occurrence.

[SamT]

I've been following this thread with interest, and have been thinking.  However, there really is nothing notable that sticks out.  I've seen hard stuff done, fights to stay on, etc etc, but nothing seems to be really memorable.

Apart from one, and whilst its not particularly notable in terms if climbing difficulty, it taps in to what most people seem to agree is noteworthy and that's 'floatyness'.  i.e. that impression that someone is just weightless, the climbing effortless.

I can still picture this now.. but not so long ago I was approaching the plantation from above the trees, from over by the unconquerables.  As usual, a crowd was below Deliverance.  One member of the crowd, (and I was at some distance), just fluidly floated up the left arete,  (Pebble Arete RHS).  Really really smooth and 'floaty',  then reversed it in exactly the same way.  No hesitation, no thought, as though simply strolling.

It really stuck in my mind.   I got closer and noted it was a certain regular poster of this parish. 

Lovely to watch people when they climb like that.

[monkoffunk]

For me it was watching Megos in Kalymos levitate up an 8c second go. I think seeing it in person made it so much more apparent how easy he found it, but it included a boulder problem to a flying arête where he cut loose and swung on what looked like totally blank rock. Just seemed to disobey physics, all without breaking a sweat.

[andy popp]

I'm beginning to think I've never really witnessed the kind of impressive that people are mostly talking about here - near super human physical strength or endurance. Never witnessed 8c or 8B being climbed (possibly not even 8b+ or 8A+). Even the one genuine foreign wad I've climbed with - Ellie Cheveux - was clearly quite human on the day I spent with him. I feel like I've missed out!

[SA Chris]

 I got closer and noted it was a certain regular poster of this parish. 

Sounds like a Showpony act.

[Will Hunt]

I'm beginning to think I've never really witnessed the kind of impressive that people are mostly talking about here - near super human physical strength or endurance. Never witnessed 8c or 8B being climbed (possibly not even 8b+ or 8A+). Even the one genuine foreign wad I've climbed with - Ellie Cheveux - was clearly quite human on the day I spent with him. I feel like I've missed out!

I think the proliferation of videos of the hardest routes, and Instagram videos of people doing pinky one-armers on miniscule edges has made displays of strength quite passé. Watching a wad cruise an 8c is just another day in the office for them. For me, the climbing that impresses me most and that I love to watch falls under into a few categories: a fight where the climber is digging very deep and leaving nothing in reserve; or a display of exceptional boldness or commitment; or a demonstration of mastery - making the climbing seem effortless.

I do remember raising an eyebrow while watching Adam step onto the direct start of Deliverance and seemingly stroll up the problem, but I think that might have been the same day that I watched him fail on The Storm which I'd done in the morning, so it all cancelled out - the massive punter.

[nash1]

Hands down for me it was Dani Andrada. He was absolutely mad for it.
The weather was a bit grim so we went to this cave with a few routes. He was warming up on a 7c, got to the crux and started down climbing, I was a bit dissapointed that he didnt manage to do it, but he only down climbed to the last bolt then re-climbed the whole thing, he said he realised it was nearly over and needed more warming up!
Then he onsighted the 8a+ at the crag. Next up was a project, he bolt-to-bolted it getting rid of the ancient quickdraws as he went, came down and sent it, including doing a showpony one armer at the crux. 8b he said.
I was trying another 7c and he said he would strip it as a warm down. He climbed to the 2nd bolt, down climbed and unclipped the first, then climbed to the 3rd, and back down to unclip the 2nd, we asked him what he was doing and he said he couldnt be arsed to clean it on the way down cos it was so steep, so he cleaned it on the way up! Mental.
On the way home we drove past a bouldering spot and he was so keen he forced us to stop for a look, it was gale force winds and baltic, but he had tucked his shoes in his jacket and liked the look of a classic 7a so he bombed up that as well, no pads or chalk or anything. Really inspiring to see someone so damn keen!

[monkoffunk]

Oh actually I have another...

I was at Carla Barques climbing with a French guy who had been trying Goldie Hawn (7b+) all day with no success. Then Chris Sharma comes along and unsurprisingly walks up it as part of his warm up, (‘beautiful climbing on perfect slots’ he described it, although I hadn’t spotted anything I’d call a slot). Right after him the French guy appears at the top; turns out all he needed was the inspiration of watching Sharma cruise his route to summon up the strength to get up it at the end of the day, which was awesome to watch.

[Bradders]

I'm beginning to think I've never really witnessed the kind of impressive that people are mostly talking about here - near super human physical strength or endurance. Never witnessed 8c or 8B being climbed (possibly not even 8b+ or 8A+). Even the one genuine foreign wad I've climbed with - Ellie Cheveux - was clearly quite human on the day I spent with him. I feel like I've missed out!

I think the proliferation of videos of the hardest routes, and Instagram videos of people doing pinky one-armers on miniscule edges has made displays of strength quite passé. Watching a wad cruise an 8c is just another day in the office for them. For me, the climbing that impresses me most and that I love to watch falls under into a few categories: a fight where the climber is digging very deep and leaving nothing in reserve; or a display of exceptional boldness or commitment; or a demonstration of mastery - making the climbing seem effortless.

The one "act of impressiveness" I would add to that is where someone does something out of nowhere. As in, they've been trying something, don't look close at all or like it should be well beyond them and then suddenly pull it out of the bag.

Which immediately brings to mind Rob Lay doing Caroline in Rocklands last year. It was his 3rd or 4th session maybe and the problem totally suited his style, whilst still being hard for him. Either way, he was just going backwards, falling lower and lower and had ripped a massive chunk of skin off one of his fingers. Finally after God knows how many goes and looking completely shattered he pulls on for what must be a last go and it all came together. I remember just thinking how the hell did he do that